Nintendo and the Pokemon Company announced this evening that both companies will be suing Pocketpair, Inc, better known as the developers of Palworld, aka "Pokemon With Guns".
Nintendo's brief legal statement--which doesn't get into the specifics of what, exactly, it is they're suing over--reads:
Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024.
This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights. Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.
Is it weird that it took Nintendo this long (Palworld launched back in January), when it can come down so quickly on fan projects before they even see the light of day? Maybe the company had to build a case this time, since suing an actual, commercially-successful video game (Palworld has made over $70 million since launch) is harder than bullying some kids into taking down a fan-made project.
Or maybe Nintendo just figured it's better to sue someone for damages after they've made all that cash.
